Shinya Aoki vs Suwama, Evolution 7/5
First 6 minutes of this were very good as it was basically Aoki taking the much bigger Suwama apart on the mat. Aoki pretty much dominated him almost completely, with Suwama seemingly only leaning on his size advantage, almost baffingly so when you remember Suwama actually has a strong background in amateur wrestling. There were a few cool moments especially the weird pin Aoki did. Aoki gets cocky and Suwamas response is to chuck him outside and go for chairs. A good idea in theory, but the crowd brawling was kind of ass in practise and took too long. The match actually gets good again when they get back in the ring. Suwama looked like an angry bear trying to maul Aokis skinny ass. Loved Aokis ultra tight full nelson hold that nearly seemed to crank Suwamas thick neck. Good stuff, edit out the wandering around in the crowd and you'd have something leaning into greatness.
Yuta Oya vs Super Taira, Sportiva 9/3
This was so good. Both these guys are great grapplers and really interesting wrestlers in general, but there's also the power vs skill aspect. Oya can really wrestle, and it's fascinating to watch him find his way around the mat and lock in complex submissions, but he also has the power to slam you really hard. There was a sense that Taira was really trying to avoid Oyas power and it felt when Oya got him even in a basic side headlock, Taira was in trouble. There was this bit where they both stubbornly struggled over ground octopus hold variations and it was a glorious bit of pro wrestling. Taira continues to be one of the more interesting wrestlers around with his blend of shootstyle and lucha grappling and his hard kicks and penchant for a sneaky flash submission or pin. And then you have Oyas killer judo throw. This was a great match up and they delivered a great 10 minute undercard match which is a wonderful thing in itself.
Hideaki Sumi vs Tatsunori Oya, Kobe Meriken 8/29
Kobe Meriken finally fixed the audio/video delay on their camera, so now you get to watch the glorious violence of Hideaki Sumi in more accuracy. Seriously wicked performance by Sumi here who looked like an all time great karate asskicker. He was beating the absolute shit out of Oya with sick kicks, punches and headbutts. It would've made Daisuke Ikeda worship. That half handspring enzuigiri Sumi does that landed right in Oyas face is a thing of absurd violent beauty. Insane Sumi performance when you consider he's 56, he looked like an asskicker on the level of any asskicker in wrestling here. He also displayed some cool submission skill which I always appreciate in a striker. Oya was also pretty good here. He tried to shoot grapple with the karateka and he had a cool judo throw and generally looked a lot better than in his last appearance than I saw. And he absolutely got his ass kicked here, making this one hell of a 7 minute sportsbar BattlARTS match. I need to watch like a 100 more Sumi matches after this.
Sareee & Takumi Iroha vs Natsuki Tora & Saya Kamitani, SAREEE-ism 7/14
Fast pace, some chaos and brawling, a clear face heel dynamic leading to real heat... this is a fun classic look for joshi in 2025! The fact this is not a typical workratefest made me give a shit and all these 4 do an excellent job keeping this formula interesting. Tora and Kamitani are hardly Gokuaku Domei, but they do a good job here. Kamitani was not afraid to get into sicko headbutting wars with Sareee and Tora is a really fun tubby girl wrestler who blows mist and squishes people with brutal sentons (I looked up Natsuki Tora and apparently joshi fans hate her. Well, that figures.) Iroha is great here as Chigusas heir kicking the shit out of bad people and looking like a badass. Sareee is also a lot of fun doing her thing in this environment - watching her suplex the bigger Tora around was pretty crazy. There is some interference which is done in a non-match derailing way and there was a crazy shot with a baseball bat. Not a ton of selling but that's not a huge detriment in this kind of match I think. Sareee actually looked damaged after eating a nasty Death Valley Bomb and it actually looked dramatic. Enough fun twists and turns to keep you entertained, and of course they all nuke each other with some big time bombs without going too overboard. I really really liked this a lot.
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